Biker and mountaineer Sarika Mehta refuses to take no for an answer

As someone who grew up in a joint family of over 30+ members, Dr Sarika Mehta knows how to face down social pressure. There was plenty of that at home. Educating the girls wasn’t much of a priority, but having an ambitious mother helped Mehta dodge the norm and set different standards for herself. After specialising in psychology in college, she did her masters in behaviour modification and later got a PhD in behavioural science.

Excelling academically, however, wasn’t Mehta’s only goal. This psychologist from Surat had plans that entailed risking life and limb, an idea that made her family recoil—more so after she got married and had two children. “I love adventure. I’m passionate about it. I went on my first trek when I was 12, and although it was a small one, it was exhilarating. In 2015, I came across this tour group who were planning a trek to the Himalayas. The first thing that came to my mind was I probably wouldn’t be able to complete this trek, but I still wanted to try. So I started going for smaller treks in the Himalayas. My first major climb was basecamp Everest the same year,” she says. But this was the year Nepal was struck by a severe earthquake, which triggered an avalanche onto the Everest basecamp. Mehta recalls, “It was horrible. So many people were killed and a couple of my friends were badly injured. I can never forget what I saw. There was no connectivity whatsoever. My friends and family were afraid that I was either stuck there or dead. I managed to connect to my family after five long days.”

This incident shook her but it had bigger implications too. While Mehta thought she would never be able to climb again, her family was dead against her ever trying. “My nerves finally settled down after a few months and I realised that the only way to deal with my fear of climbing would be to go on another expedition. Of course, that meant convincing my family, but my dream was to climb the seven summits of the world,” she smiles. One thing you can safely say about Mehta is that she’s a doer. She climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in September 2015, and in 2017, scaled Mount Elbrus in Russia with her husband and kids.

Once she got back on the mountain, so to speak, it was time to move on to the next challenge. Mehta tells us how it started, “I wanted to take a picture against a friend’s sports bike. Immediately after taking the picture, I felt a strong urge to ride the bike. My friends were quick to tell me that I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I took this up as a challenge. If I could climb mountains, why couldn’t I learn how to ride a bike?”

The idea that a mother of two wanted to learn how to ride was somehow ludicrous to the people around Mehta. But she didn’t let that deter her. She convinced her husband to teach her how to ride. Soon after, she came across a bike racing academy in Coimbatore, and once again, the adventurer in her felt compelled. “I went to Coimbatore and learnt everything there was to know about gears, helmets, brakes and the technology and psychology behind riding a bike. I wanted to put all this newfound knowledge to use, so I started holding seminars in schools and colleges on the importance of road safety,” she says.

Around this time, the World Health Organization took notice of the work Mehta was doing. They invited her to participate in a road safety event in Europe that had riders from multiple countries presenting research on the subject. She explains, “I also had to ride through countries like Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland and back to Germany. When I went there, I was surprised to find that I was required to ride a Ducati Monster. It was a dream come true for me!” WHO was impressed by her research and invited her for more campaigns—one in Spain and Morocco, and another in South Africa.

On her return, Mehta was overwhelmed by requests from women who wanted her to teach them to ride. In 2015, she started the first women’s biking club in Surat called Biking Queens. Having actively worked towards various social causes in the past, Mehta and three other women riders from her club embarked on a 10-nation ride for the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Abhiyan in 2016. The group created history by riding across India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore completing the 10,000-km journey in just 39 days. Along the way, they spoke to people about issues like female foeticide, the importance of educating the girl child and spread awareness about welfare schemes available for women.

Last year, to commemorate India’s 71st Independence Day, Mehta and 50 other women riders rode through 6000 villages in 15 Indian states promoting women empowerment. They also taught young girls in the villages about menstrual hygiene and encouraged them to stay in school. The group concluded their journey by hoisting the tricolour at Khardung La pass, one of the world’s highest and most treacherous motorable roads, on August 15.

Mehta believes that a woman riding a bike sends out a strong message to the world. But our favourite aspect of her story is how one person’s quest for self-empowerment ended up touching the lives of so many girls and women in the most distant villages of India. And to think that it all started with one little girl refusing to take no for an answer.